Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

Vietnamese scud ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Author- Hohum) Source- The Business Standard Author- Jeremy Bender Vietnam is becoming a proxy against China in any future possible confrontation in the South China Sea or South Asia as a whole. On Oct. 28 India announced that it would sell naval vessels to Vietnam in exchange for an energy-exploration deal. These vessels would arrive at a time of rising tension between Vietnam and China over contested island chains in the South China Sea. Massive protests broke out across Vietnam in May and over the summer, as citizens torched Chinese businesses after China moved an oil rig into disputed territory west of the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea. Both Vietnam and China lay claim to the islands, and the nations have frequently clashed over them. India's decision to back Vietnam comes during the country's own border disputes with China. China and India fought a border war in 1962 that has led to the fr

Kilo Class Submarine  ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Ria Novosti, Author-Vitaliy Ankov) As events this year have shown, the Vietnamese government won’t suffer any buyer’s remorse regarding its decision to invest in six Russian  Kilo -class submarines in a 2009 deal worth $2.6 billion. The government’s decision to both purchase these submarines and incorporate them strategically into a  burgeoning asymmetric anti-access/area denial  (A2/AD) strategy were vindicated over the course of the dramatic  saga earlier this year involving China moving its oil rig HYSY-981  into Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). As far as Vietnam is concerned, international law, ASEAN, and even the naval might of the United States will do little to safeguard its territorial claims — it must move to deter Chinese irredentism by itself. Through its investments, Vietnam demonstrates an unwillingness to acquiesce to the age-old Thucydidean dictum that the “strong do what they can and the weak suffer

Kilo class submarine ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ United States Navy) Vietnam will soon have a credible naval deterrent to China in the South China Sea in the form of Kilo-class submarines from Russia, which experts say could make Beijing think twice before pushing its much smaller neighbour around in disputed waters. A master of guerrilla warfare, Vietnam has taken possession of two of the state-of-the-art submarines and will get a third in November under a $2.6 billion deal agreed with Moscow in 2009. A final three are scheduled to be delivered within two years. While communist parties rule both Vietnam and China and annual trade has risen to $50 billion, Hanoi has long been wary of China, especially over Beijing's claims to most of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea. Beijing's placement of an oil rig in waters claimed by Vietnam earlier this year infuriated Hanoi but the coastguard vessels it dispatched to the platform were always chased off by

Vietnamese soldiers ( Image credits-Wikimedia commons/Author)  “We are enraged. We are very angry.” With words as firm as these, the  ‪#‎ Vietnamese‬  ambassador denounced China's “dream” of a 9-dash line, the demarcation mark that  ‪#‎ China‬  uses to claim virtually the entire  ‪#‎ South‬  #China  ‪#‎ Sea‬ . “We don't fear anything,” Vietnamese Ambassador to the #Philippines Truong Trieu Duong told Rappler. ‪#‎ Vietnam‬ , after all, has a long tradition of ejecting its conquerors – including #China, in 938 AD – throughout its 2,000-year history. Duong sat down for a wide-ranging interview on May 29, which covered Vietnam's thoughts on #China as well as the United States, their country's next possible moves, and its views on the #Philippines in the South China Sea dispute. The following stories on Rappler covered two main points from the interview: #Vietnam to #Philippines: United, we will win Philippines, Vietnam can share disputed sea – envoy Be

Image courtesy- Xinhua Vietnam is taking a big gamble by inflaming its territorial dispute with China as Beijing could very well consider starting a war, reports Duowei News, an outlet run by overseas Chinese. More than 7,000 Chinese citizens have already been evacuated from Vietnam since anti-China riots broke out as a result of a standoff between Chinese and Vietnamese naval ships near a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters off the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on May 4. Reports say at least 25 people have died during the riots, which targeted Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong factories across the country, with many forced to shut down due to damage and fires. Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung has since sent out three mass text messages to citizens urging them not to participate in further protests, but only after widespread accusations that his government tacitly encouraged them in the first place. Vietnam's diplomatic efforts to garner support against